On the occasion of International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, Mariam HarebAlmheiri, Minister of State for Food and Water Security, called for reducing food loss and wastage within the food supply chain, noting that it serves as a strategic objective to strengthening the UAE’s food security.

She stated that food waste and loss has become one of the major challenges that the world is facing currently, adding that it requires practical solutions to ensure that the global capacity to produce healthy and sustainable food meets the needs of the global populations and help in ending hunger.

"Currently, around one-third of manufactured food is being wasted while over 850 million people are suffering from hunger around the world. If half of the wasted food can be utilised, the world can eliminate hunger," the Minister noted.

She highlighted that crucial partners from the public and private sectors, along with the support of the people, can serve as significant tools in achieving the objective of ending world hunger through food waste management.

The 74th United Nations General Assembly, in 2019, marked September 29 as the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, acknowledging the paramount role of sustainable food production in promoting food security and nutrition across the world. Amid the pandemic crisis this year, there are various global challenges looming upon the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste. These challenges have to be addressed by countries across the world to achieve the key goals of "Responsible consumption and production", which will further help in the fight against Climate Change and attaining Zero Hunger.

Almheiri further added that the UAE has prioritised the issues of food waste and loss, highlighting that developing a comprehensive food waste reduction system is one of the major objectives of the country's National Food Security Strategy. She noted that all concerned national authorities are contributing towards achieving the vision of the UAE’s leadership to create public awareness and educate the communities about the significance of food rationalisation.

Noting that countries across the world are facing severe repercussions induced by the Coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown measures, the UAE has also taken a number of proactive steps to reduce food loss and waste in the country.

Almheiri highlighted one such step taken by the UAE authorities with the establishment of the National Food Loss and Waste Reduction Committee, under the Emirates Food Security Council which is working towards launching all necessary initiatives that will contribute to reducing food waste and loss in the country by 15 percent by the end of 2021.

She further highlighted that the authorities are planning to launch many more programmes and initiatives to reduce food waste. The minister also called upon the relevant partners and community members to identify potential solutions to minimise food loss and waste, rationalise food consumption, and promote sustainable health and nutrition, noting that the contribution of the community will boost the national efforts to establish a flexible national food system that is capable of meeting the future food needs of the country.

The United Nations has also affirmed that the first-ever International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste has come at a time when the world is struggling to overcome the Coronavirus pandemic, adding that it is a global wake-up call towards the need for reforming and rebalancing the way the world produce and consume food. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 14 percent of food (valued at US$400 billion) is lost every year due to wastage and irresponsible consumption. In terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the food that is lost every year due to wastage is equivalent to around 1.5 Gt of CO2 (Carbon dioxide).

WAM